After proceeding3 some miles on the highway, the carriage turned off, and the coachman involved himself in an intricate network of cross-roads.
“Are we far from St. Crux?” asked the captain, growing impatient, after mile on mile had been passed without a sign of reaching the journey’s end.
“You’ll see the house, sir, at the next turn in the road,” said the man.
The next turn in the road brought them within view of the open country again. Ahead of the carriage, Captain Wragge saw a long dark line against the sky—the line of the sea-wall which protects the low coast of Essex from inundation4. The flat intermediate country was intersected by a labyrinth5 of tidal streams, winding6 up from the invisible sea in strange fantastic curves—rivers at high water, and channels of mud at low. On his right hand was a quaint7 little village, mostly composed of wooden houses, straggling down to the brink8 of one of the tidal streams. On his left hand, further away, rose the gloomy ruins of an abbey, with a desolate9 pile of buildings, which covered two sides of a square attached to it. One of the streams from the sea (called, in Essex, “backwaters”) curled almost entirely10 round the house. Another, from an opposite quarter, appeared to run straight through the grounds, and to separate one side of the shapeless mass of buildings, which was in moderate repair, from another, which was little better than a ruin. Bridges of wood and bridges of brick crossed the stream, and gave access to the house from all points of the compass. No human creature appeared in the neighborhood, and no sound was heard but the hoarse11 barking of a house-dog from an invisible courtyard.
“Which door shall I drive to, sir?” asked the coachman. “The front or the back?”
“The back,” said Captain Wragge, feeling that the less notice he attracted in his present position, the safer that position might be.
The carriage twice crossed the stream before the coachman made his way through the grounds into a dreary12 inclosure of stone. At an open door on the inhabited side of the place sat a weather-beaten old man, busily at work on a half-finished model of a ship. He rose and came to the carriage door, lifting up his spectacles on his forehead, and looking disconcerted at the appearance of a stranger.
“Is Mr. Noel Vanstone staying here?” asked Captain Wragge.
“Yes, sir,” replied the old man. “Mr. Noel came yesterday.”
“Take that card to Mr. Vanstone, if you please,” said the captain, “and say I am waiting here to see him.”
In a few minutes Noel Vanstone made his appearance, breathless and eager—absorbed in anxiety for news from Aldborough. Captain Wragge opened the carriage door, seized his outstretched hand, and pulled him in without ceremony.
“Your housekeeper13 has gone,” whispered the captain, “and you are to be married on Monday. Don’t agitate14 yourself, and don’t express your feelings—there isn’t time for it. Get the first active servant you can find in the house to pack your bag in ten minutes, take leave of the admiral, and come back at once with me to the London train.”
Noel Vanstone faintly attempted to ask a question. The captain declined to hear it.
“As much talk as you like on the road,” he said. “Time is too precious for talking here. How do we know Lecount may not think better of it? How do we know she may not turn back before she gets to Zurich?”
That startling consideration terrified Noel Vanstone into instant submission15.
“What shall I say to the admiral?” he asked, helplessly.
“Tell him you are going to be married, to be sure! What does it matter, now Lecount’s back is turned? If he wonders you didn’t tell him before, say it’s a runaway16 match, and the bride is waiting for you. Stop! Any letters addressed to you in your absence will be sent to this place, of course? Give the admiral these envelopes, and tell him to forward your letters under cover to me. I am an old customer at the hotel we are going to; and if we find the place full, the landlord may be depended on to take care of any letters with my name on them. A safe address in London for your correspondence may be of the greatest importance. How do we know Lecount may not write to you on her way to Zurich?”
“What a head you have got!” cried Noel Vanstone, eagerly taking the envelopes. “You think of everything.”
He left the carriage in high excitement, and ran back into the house. In ten minutes more Captain Wragge had him in safe custody17, and the horses started on their return journey.
The travelers reached London in good time that evening, and found accommodation at the hotel.
Knowing the restless, inquisitive18 nature of the man he had to deal with, Captain Wragge had anticipated some little difficulty and embarrassment19 in meeting the questions which Noel Vanstone might put to him on the way to London. To his great relief, a startling domestic discovery absorbed his traveling companion’s whole attention at the outset of the journey. By some extraordinary oversight20, Miss Bygrave had been left, on the eve of her marriage, unprovided with a maid. Noel Vanstone declared that he would take the whole responsibility of correcting this deficiency in the arrangements, on his own shoulders; he would not trouble Mr. Bygrave to give him any assistance; he would confer, when they got to their journey’s end, with the landlady21 of the hotel, and would examine the candidates for the vacant office himself. All the way to London, he returned again and again to the same subject; all the evening, at the hotel, he was in and out of the landlady’s sitting-room22, until he fairly obliged her to lock the door. In every other proceeding which related to his marriage, he had been kept in the background; he had been compelled to follow in the footsteps of his ingenious friend. In the matter of the lady’s maid he claimed his fitting position at last—he followed nobody; he took the lead!
The forenoon of the next day was devoted23 to obtaining the license—the personal distinction of making the declaration on oath being eagerly accepted by Noel Vanstone, who swore, in perfect good faith (on information previously24 obtained from the captain) that the lady was of age. The document procured25, the bridegroom returned to examine the characters and qualifications of the women-servants out of the place whom the landlady had engaged to summon to the hotel, while Captain Wragge turned his steps, “on business personal to himself,” toward the residence of a friend in a distant quarter of London.
The captain’s friend was connected with the law, and the captain’s business was of a twofold nature. His first object was to inform himself of the legal bearings of the approaching marriage on the future of the husband and the wife. His second object was to provide beforehand for destroying all traces of the destination to which he might betake himself when he left Aldborough on the wedding-day. Having reached his end successfully in both these cases, he returned to the hotel, and found Noel Vanstone nursing his offended dignity in the landlady’s sitting-room. Three ladies’ maids had appeared to pass their examination, and had all, on coming to the question of wages, impudently26 declined accepting the place. A fourth candidate was expected to present herself on the next day; and, until she made her appearance, Noel Vanstone positively27 declined removing from the metropolis28. Captain Wragge showed his annoyance29 openly at the unnecessary delay thus occasioned in the return to Aldborough, but without producing any effect. Noel Vanstone shook his obstinate30 little head, and solemnly refused to trifle with his responsibilities.
The first event which occurred on Saturday morning was the arrival of Mrs. Lecount’s letter to her master, inclosed in one of the envelopes which the captain had addressed to himself. He received it (by previous arrangement with the waiter) in his bedroom—read it with the closest attention—and put it away carefully in his pocketbook. The letter was ominous31 of serious events to come when the housekeeper returned to England; and it was due to Magdalen—who was the person threatened—to place the warning of danger in her own possession.
Later in the day the fourth candidate appeared for the maid’s situation—a young woman of small expectations and subdued32 manners, who looked (as the landlady remarked) like a person overtaken by misfortune. She passed the ordeal33 of examination successfully, and accepted the wages offered with out a murmur34. The engagement having been ratified35 on both sides, fresh delays ensued, of which Noel Vanstone was once more the cause. He had not yet made up his mind whether he would, or would not, give more than a guinea for the wedding-ring; and he wasted the rest of the day to such disastrous36 purpose in one jeweler’s shop after another, that he and the captain, and the new lady’s maid (who traveled with them), were barely in time to catch the last train from London that evening. It was late at night when they left the railway at the nearest station to Aldborough. Captain Wragge had been strangely silent all through the journey. His mind was ill at ease. He had left Magdalen, under very critical circumstances, with no fit person to control her, and he was wholly ignorant of the progress of events in his absence at North Shingles37.
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1
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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crux
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| adj.十字形；难事，关键，最重要点 | |
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proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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inundation
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| n.the act or fact of overflowing | |
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labyrinth
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| n.迷宫；难解的事物；迷路 | |
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winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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brink
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| n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿 | |
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desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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housekeeper
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| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
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agitate
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| vi.(for,against)煽动，鼓动；vt.搅动 | |
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submission
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| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
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runaway
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| n.逃走的人，逃亡，亡命者；adj.逃亡的，逃走的 | |
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17
custody
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| n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留 | |
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inquisitive
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| adj.求知欲强的，好奇的，好寻根究底的 | |
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embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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oversight
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| n.勘漏，失察，疏忽 | |
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landlady
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| n.女房东，女地主 | |
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sitting-room
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| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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procured
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 )；拉皮条 | |
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impudently
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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metropolis
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| n.首府；大城市 | |
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annoyance
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| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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ominous
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| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
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subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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ordeal
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| n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验 | |
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murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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35
ratified
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| v.批准，签认（合约等）( ratify的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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36
disastrous
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| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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37
shingles
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| n.带状疱疹；（布满海边的）小圆石( shingle的名词复数 )；屋顶板；木瓦（板）；墙面板 | |
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